I decided to take a dormant Nexus 7 and turn it into a casual gaming machine. I haven’t been too impressed with the offerings in the Google Play store, but one game I’ve quickly become addicted to is Carcassonne, one of the most popular of the German-style board games. Some reviewers have complained that the game is buggy or crashes on certain platforms but it runs wonderfully on my tablet. The graphics are attractive, the animations are smooth, and there’s multiple AI opponents of varying ability to choose from. I miss the tactile qualities of the actual board game — it’s fun playing the pieces — but it’s hard to beat the convenience, flexibility, and price of the electronic version. The base game is only $5 and there are five expansions available for a few bucks more each. It’s also available for iOS.

Which are your favorite games to play, be it on your tablet, phone, or actual tabletop?

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5 Responses to Carcassonne for Android

I haven’t much gotten into gaming on portable devices being a bottom tier member of #pcmasterrace.

With one notable exception:

For these last few months I have become near addicted to a game called Ingress. It is a mobile device mediated mash of easy geocaching and capture the flag. Two worldwide teams compete over ownership of “portals,” which are assigned to real-world locations. You have to *be* at the location to play.

This has gamified casual walks and bike rides in a very interesting way. And some people take it quite seriously: There are even portals in the Arctic and Antarctica.

Ingress sounds like a lot of fun. Is it one of those games, tho, that constantly runs in the background on your phone? I find that those kinds of apps (like Google Field Trip or pedometer apps) drain my battery too quickly.

It is hard on the battery, but mostly only when it is open and one is active. It’s the data swaps that really hitbthe battery. But if you’re playing for more than an hour or two– which is very common if one had the psycholigal buttons it mashes hard– you better have power backup.

The two teams are the Enlightened and Resistance. If you play and pick the former I’ll be shocked and disappointed.

I’m almost ashamed to say it but I’ve been a Sims addict since 2000. That’s a desktop-only thing for me and no, I never, ever, ever want to play it multiplayer. Ever. When I create pixelated humans, I want to be their Only God(dess).

While different, I get it. Because SimCity is great. That is also an example of why PC gaming kicks consol butt: Various community mods have made the most recent edition of that– which is ~13 years old– playable and entertaining looooong after the expire date of anything on a console.